Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 183

Department of Holiday Cheer: Edition 2013

It’s been an eventful year, not necessarily in a bad way. But nevertheless the start of 2014 is welcome. Any day now.

In the meantime, a bit of holiday doggerel from Calvin Trillin:

I’d like to spend next Christmas in Qatar,

Or someplace else that Santa won’t find handy.

Qatar will do, although, Lord knows, it’s sandy.

Also, one shouldn’t get through the holiday season entirely without anything from David Sedaris‘s memories of working as a store elf:

The woman grabbed my arm and said: You there, el...

New in Theaters: ‘The Invisible Woman’

Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones gaze across the abyss of longing in ‘The Invisible Woman’

When Charles Dickens was alive and writing, there was hardly a more famous person in the Western world. Ralph Fiennes’ second film as a director stars himself as the frequently mobbed and phenomenally insecure author who spent his private time chasing the affections of a much, much younger woman.

The Invisible Woman opens on Christmas Day and should be playing at an arthouse near you. My review is atFilm...

Readers’ Corner: Peter O’Toole (1932-2013)

Although he will go down in cultural history as the incarnation of Lawrence of Arabia (not so much the real-life one, but the fascinatingly cinematic variation thereof), Peter O’Toole had his literary side as well. When he passed away last week, most obituaries mentioned one of the hellraising actor’s more memorable lines of poetry:

I will not be a common man.

I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.

For more O’Toole greatness, check out Gay Talese’s rattlingly good profile on the man fromEsqui...

New in Theaters: ‘The Past’

Berenice Bejo and Ali Mosaffa in ‘The Past’

Like the writer said, The past is never dead, it isn’t even past. In Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi’s newest drama, a French woman (Berenice Bejo, fromThe Artist) invites her ex-husband back from Iran supposedly to finalize their divorce only to ensnare him in her tangled new relationship.

The Past opened this week in limited release but should roll out around the country over the next couple months. My review is atFilm Racket:

Asghar Farhadi’s powerful b...

Department of Weekend Reading: December 20, 2013

Is Kim Stanley Robinson our greatest political writer? And what does that even mean?
When drone strikes go wrong.
Trying to readMoby-Dick; and other Google Glass misadventures.
Have a drink, swipe a mug.
Here’s where the uninsured live; mostly Texas, it appears.
India’s likely new prime minister has some very nasty skeletons in that closet.
Turning rednecks into greenbacks; the cultural divides of reality TV.
Back in 2011, tens of thousands signed a petition to cancel the Kardashians.
One spooky Scot...

In Movies: National Film Registry

‘Decasia’; now, and for eternity

Every year, the Library of Congress selects another 25 films “deemed to be culturally, aesthetically or historically important” for adding to the National Film Registry, in order to preserve them for future generations. The 2013 list is nice and eclectic, ranging from Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) to musicals (Mary Poppins), short documentaries, and experimental one-offs (Decasia, a found-footage compilation showing the decay of film stock over time).

Here’s the new...

New in Theaters: ‘Her’

Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Her’: Loving what’s not there

Everyone always says that they justlovethis phone or that gadget. So it makes sense that Spike Jonze’s visionary but powerfully naive new sci-fi rom-comHer would take that romantic displacement to its ultimate conclusion by having a guy (Joaquin Phoenix) fall in love with his new operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).

Her opens this week. My review is atFilm Racket:

In the future, computers will be not only our friends and lovers, they’...

New in Theaters: ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues’

‘Anchorman 2′! Is back!

The rule of comedy sequels is not a strong one; witness everything fromGhostbusters 2 to The Hangover 3. Nevertheless, Adam McKay and Will Ferrell dared the fates by going back to their 2004 cult oddityAnchorman, the single most surreal comedy to hit American theaters since Monty Python, and seeing if they could resuscitate the magic. This time, instead of 1970s local-news, they’re doing an extended riff on early CNN.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues opens everywhere to...

Department of Awards: Online Film Critics Society

Chiwetel Ejiofor in ’12 Years a Slave’

The Online Film Critics Society, an international group of cinematic scriveners who are kind enough to count me in their number, today announced our awards for the best films of 2013. Not surprisingly, Steve McQueen’s12 Years a Slaveand Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravitytook the lead, with five and three wins, respectively, and Cate Blanchett deservedly took another best actress win for her work in Blue Jasmine.Variety reported it here.

Cate Blanchett in ‘Blue Jasmi...

Writers’ Corner: James Baldwin and Preaching

James Baldwin didn’t start out as a writer; but then, none of us do. Before he put pen to paper, he had a different calling: preacher.

In this interview fromThe Paris Review, he explains the difference:

When you are standing in the pulpit, you must sound as though you know what you’re talking about. When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know. The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But s...